Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York – LRANYhttps://lrany.org
Justice. Fairness. Common Sense.Wed, 08 Aug 2018 16:36:12 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.7115505014Subscribe with My Yahoo!Subscribe with NewsGatorSubscribe with My AOLSubscribe with BloglinesSubscribe with NetvibesSubscribe with GoogleSubscribe with PageflakesSubscribe with PlusmoSubscribe with The Free DictionarySubscribe with Bitty BrowserSubscribe with Live.comSubscribe with Excite MIXSubscribe with WebwagSubscribe with Podcast ReadySubscribe with WikioSubscribe with Daily RotationNY Post: Wheelchair-bound man who sues inaccessible shops can walkhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Lrany/~3/g5xZi4Q2CpA/
https://lrany.org/2018/07/26/ny-post-wheelchair-bound-man-who-sues-inaccessible-shops-can-walk/#respondThu, 26 Jul 2018 21:18:35 +0000https://lrany.org/?p=14724The New York Post reporters exposed Arik Matatov, the serial disability lawsuit filer the paper covered earlier in the week, as not someone who requires a wheel chair to get around:

A worker at men’s clothing store Ari in Soho — which Matatov threatened after finding its portable ramp was too small for his chair to get up two steps — said he hopes there are consequences.

“These people should be prosecuted for hurting businesses for no reason. There is no merit to this case,” said the employee, who wouldn’t give his name.

“That lawyer should be barred from practicing law,” he added.

Tom Stebbins of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York, which is working to eliminate nuisance suits, said the scheme makes “a mockery of the legal profession and the civil justice system.”

“The New York attorney general and the Department of Justice should keep a close eye on these serial filers — in both state and federal courts — and the lawyers at the lawsuit mills that recruit them,” he said.

“The fraud and abuse in this system must be stopped so these laws can be returned to their noble intentions,” he said.

Neiman and Matatov wouldn’t be the first people accused of gaming the Americans with Disabilities Act with dozens of suits.

]]>https://lrany.org/2018/07/26/ny-post-wheelchair-bound-man-who-sues-inaccessible-shops-can-walk/feed/014724https://lrany.org/2018/07/26/ny-post-wheelchair-bound-man-who-sues-inaccessible-shops-can-walk/NY Post: Wheelchair-bound man demands $50K from inaccessible shopshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Lrany/~3/tfdcflsOF24/
https://lrany.org/2018/07/26/ny-post-wheelchair-bound-man-demands-50k-from-inaccessible-shops/#respondThu, 26 Jul 2018 21:13:23 +0000https://lrany.org/?p=14722The New York Post reports that a man has sued or sent demand letters to 49 businesses for alleged lack of accessibility for the disabled:

He wouldn’t say how much Matatov has collected in settlements but boasted that 10 business have made their entrances accessible in response to his demands.

Steven Kirkpatrick, a lawyer for the trendy women’s clothing store AYR in Soho, said he agreed to settled Matatov’s case for less than the $50,000 demand.

Kirkpatrick said he has noticed an upsurge in such disability suits in recent years.

“It’s easy money for lawyers,” he explained.

Critics, meanwhile, said the lawsuits do little to improve the lives of people in wheelchairs.

“Multimillion-dollar cookie-cutter-claims like these have nothing to do with increasing access for the disabled,” said Tom Stebbins, director of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York.

“The court system is being exploited to bully small businesses into paying out settlements.

Resisting these lawsuits have been several Republican state attorneys general and the Trump administration. Opposition to the cases argues that is the job of the legislative and executive branches to regulate greenhouse gases.

Where these cases have been filed has not been surprising. In Rhode Island, the state previously attempted a similar “public nuisance” theory on the former makers of lead paint. Boulder has a history of addressing climate change, and Washington’s King County is home to Hagens Berman’s headquarters.

And California and New York have reputations as two of the country’s most favorable jurisdictions for plaintiffs lawyers.

“We’re thrilled with Judge Keenan’s decision today to dismiss the City’s baseless climate change lawsuit. New York is already a haven for excessive litigation and this kind of lawsuit only adds to the problem,” said Tom Stebbins, executive director of the New York Lawsuit Reform Alliance.

“Trial lawyers are attempting to politicize the legal system and stretch tort law far beyond its purposes in search of the next litigation jackpot.

“Unelected, profit-seeking trial lawyers should not be pushing public policy through the courts. That is not the role of the civil justice system; it is the domain of Congress and state legislatures – elected officials accountable to the people.”

“We’re thrilled with Judge Keenan’s decision today to dismiss the City’s baseless climate change lawsuit. New York is already a haven for excessive litigation and this kind of lawsuit only adds to the problem. Trial lawyers are attempting to politicize the legal system and stretch tort law far beyond its purposes in search of the next litigation jackpot.

“Unelected, profit-seeking trial lawyers should not be pushing public policy through the courts. That is not the role of the civil justice system, it is the domain of Congress and state legislatures – elected officials accountable to the people.”

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]]>https://lrany.org/2018/07/19/statement-on-judge-keenans-decision-to-dismiss-new-york-citys-climate-lawsuit/feed/014715https://lrany.org/2018/07/19/statement-on-judge-keenans-decision-to-dismiss-new-york-citys-climate-lawsuit/NY Post: Judge calls request for half a million in legal fees ‘highway robbery’http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Lrany/~3/p4aEa9LRtsU/
https://lrany.org/2018/07/18/ny-post-judge-calls-request-for-half-a-million-in-legal-fees-highway-robbery/#respondWed, 18 Jul 2018 15:28:10 +0000https://lrany.org/?p=14712LRANY executive director Tom Stebbins was quoted in the New York Post commenting on a Manhattan judge’s recent decision to slash a law firm’s fee request:

A Manhattan judge called a demand for a half million in fees by a law firm against four middle-class homeowners “highway robbery without the six-gun.”

Attorneys from Greenberg Traurig — where former mayor Rudy Giuliani practiced until joining the president’s legal team— asked Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron to award them $464,000 in fees against four owners of units at the Lower East Side co-op Seward Park.

The homeowners had sued the building over parking spaces.

The Greenberg lawyers, representing the building, had won a preliminary motion to dismiss the case a year after it was filed.

Engoron notes in his ruling that the “staggering sum” could purchase a one-bedroom in an Upper East Side doorman building or a four-bedroom home in Nassau County.

“By requesting astronomical fees, attorneys are in danger of killing the goose that laid the golden egg,” he warned.

He slashed the fee by nearly 40 percent to $175,000.

A spokeswoman for Greenberg Traurig said, “We respectfully disagree with the characterization of our firm’s fees in this matter on which our client prevailed.”

Tom Stebbins with the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York said, “Judge Engoron is correct that lawyers’ fees have gotten completely out of control. We continually hear stories of law firms over-billing by hundreds of thousands of dollars and class action lawyers that pocket the majority of large settlements, leaving little or nothing for the plaintiffs.”

]]>https://lrany.org/2018/07/18/ny-post-judge-calls-request-for-half-a-million-in-legal-fees-highway-robbery/feed/014712https://lrany.org/2018/07/18/ny-post-judge-calls-request-for-half-a-million-in-legal-fees-highway-robbery/Crain’s: Letter from Congress could affect local industry around ADA lawsuitshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Lrany/~3/--2KzBljBrQ/
https://lrany.org/2018/07/17/crains-letter-from-congress-could-affect-local-industry-around-ada-lawsuits/#respondTue, 17 Jul 2018 14:20:48 +0000https://lrany.org/?p=14710Crain’s New York Business ran an article about a letter signed by 103 members of Congress at the end of June calling on the Department of Justice to stem the tide of lawsuits filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act over alleged inaccessibility to websites by the hearing and visually impaired. The article mentions a report released earlier this year on the issue by LRANY:

Over the years, Manhattan attorney Jeffrey Gottlieb reckons he has brought more than 100 lawsuits against companies that haven’t made their websites usable by the blind. Although federal law prohibits plaintiffs from collecting large amounts of damages, the cases are so irksome to the business community that Congress is asking the Trump administration to crack down on them.

“The absence of statutory, regulatory or other controlling language on this issue only fuels the proliferation of these suits,” more than 100 members of Congress wrote in a June 20 letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Scores of New York companies, including Bulgari, Fairway Market and Zabar’s, have been sued for operating websites that allegedly violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. That law was signed by George H. W. Bush in 1990 and led businesses to spend big sums installing wheelchair ramps and clearing impediments that prevented disabled people from entering stores and offices. But many companies never got around to making it possible for the blind to use their websites—a big issue in this era of online commerce.

…

Gottlieb and his ilk have made New York’s federal courts a hotbed for ADA website litigation, with 335 suits filed last year, according to law firm Seyfarth Shaw, or more than 40% of all cases. The cases usually are resolved quickly out of court, and, according to a report earlier this year by the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York, it costs on average $16,000 to settle.

The vast majority of that money is paid to lawyers for services rendered because New York law bars plaintiffs from collecting more than $500 in damages. Most states don’t allow for any financial damages in these cases.

]]>https://lrany.org/2018/07/17/crains-letter-from-congress-could-affect-local-industry-around-ada-lawsuits/feed/014710https://lrany.org/2018/07/17/crains-letter-from-congress-could-affect-local-industry-around-ada-lawsuits/NY Post: What’s at stake in those climate-change lawsuits against Big Oilhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Lrany/~3/t0_BfJwR8JM/
https://lrany.org/2018/07/02/ny-post-whats-at-stake-in-those-climate-change-lawsuits-against-big-oil/#respondMon, 02 Jul 2018 14:05:12 +0000https://lrany.org/?p=14685The New York Post published an op-ed from LRANY’s Adam Morey about how mayors and law firms are working together to sue fossil fuel companies, but federal judges are questioning the far-reaching legal theory that these energy producers can be held accountable for climate change:

Last week a federal judge in California rejected the lawsuits filed by the cities of Oakland and San Francisco against the world’s largest fossil-fuel companies for allegedly causing climate change. The ruling deals a stunning blow to the mayors — like Mayor de Blasio — and private law firms who have waged a coordinated attack on the big oil companies in courtrooms around the country.

But will those profit-seeking lawyers and the mayors they recruit learn their lesson? Let’s hope so.

If they prevail, the outcome will enrich lawyers to the detriment of energy consumers everywhere.

Contingency-fee lawyers in search of the next big litigation jackpot are attempting to politicize the civil-justice system. They’ve set their sights on deep pockets and an important component of the global economy — oil. But, as with all political debates, climate policy should be decided in the state house, not the courthouse.

]]>https://lrany.org/2018/07/02/ny-post-whats-at-stake-in-those-climate-change-lawsuits-against-big-oil/feed/014685https://lrany.org/2018/07/02/ny-post-whats-at-stake-in-those-climate-change-lawsuits-against-big-oil/SI Advance: Staten Island man brings class action suit against RX barshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Lrany/~3/kBUPd7YQQKw/
https://lrany.org/2018/06/26/si-advance-staten-island-man-brings-class-action-suit-against-rx-bars/#respondTue, 26 Jun 2018 16:38:36 +0000https://lrany.org/?p=14678Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York executive director was quoted in a story in the Staten Island Advance about a man suing over the ingredients in Rx Bars protein bars:

“This lawsuit highlights the need for reform in how New York handles class action lawsuits. I am not sure that most consumers would feel they were deceived and damaged because a product does not contain entire egg whites,” said Tom Stebbins, Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York executive director.

“In many false advertising claims the majority of a settlement goes to the lawyers while the consumers see little to no benefit. The complaint utilizes a New York law that was never intended for the class action context. The section of the state business law that mandates a $50 minimum payout for a plaintiff should not be applied per class member and the legislature should update the law to make that clear,” he added.

]]>https://lrany.org/2018/06/26/si-advance-staten-island-man-brings-class-action-suit-against-rx-bars/feed/014678https://lrany.org/2018/06/26/si-advance-staten-island-man-brings-class-action-suit-against-rx-bars/New York Times: Hedge Funds Look to Profit From Personal-Injury Suitshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Lrany/~3/bpwHjaD-1h0/
https://lrany.org/2018/06/26/new-york-times-hedge-funds-look-to-profit-from-personal-injury-suits/#respondTue, 26 Jun 2018 15:57:55 +0000https://lrany.org/?p=14675Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York executive director Tom Stebbins was quoted in the New York Times today for an article about ways in which private equity firms and hedge funds are investing in litigation:

“We have turned our civil justice system into a profit center, and now the Wall Street sharks are circling,” said Tom Stebbins, executive director of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York, which represents a number of industries. “They see litigation as a low-risk investment. They see this as a sure thing with so many cases settling.”